Hervé Petit, mayor of Corcelles-lès-Cîteaux south of Dijon, resigned on Tuesday March 29, announced the elected officials of the city council. The epilogue of a soap opera that had been going on since November 2021.
“We inform you, not without relief, that the Prefecture received the resignation of Hervé Petit from his post as mayor on Tuesday March 29, 2022“, announcement on Facebook Amaury Lebeault, municipal councilor since the recent election of March 20. A resignation that many residents and elected officials demanded, nearly five months after the conviction of Hervé Petit for sexual assault.
November 2021: Hervé Petit is sentenced
At the end of 2021, the mayor of Corcelles-lès-Cîteaux was given an eight-month suspended prison sentence for sexual assault. He admits to the court having forcibly kissed a young girl from the town at the end of August 2021. He then publicly undertakes to leave office, but does not do so.
January 2022: the municipal council resigns
On January 22 and 23, all the municipal councilors of Corcelles-lès-Cîteaux (there are then 12) resign, while the mayor finally refuses to leave his post after his conviction. “Tto take up a position as head of the town hall, for us, it is not possible, vis-à-vis the Corcellois, but also vis-à-vis the community of municipalities, all the bodies in which he can sit “then explains an adviser to France 3 Bourgogne.
February 2022: angry residents demand the mayor’s departure
On February 19, several dozen residents gathered in front of the town hall to also demand the departure of Hervé Petit. Nearly three months after his conviction, the mayor still refuses to leave his post.
March 20, 2022: election of a new municipal council
Following the resignation of all municipal councillors, a new election is called for March 20. Half of the inhabitants registered on the electoral lists, 316 out of 641, go to the polls. The 14 candidates for the city council are all elected.
“This is the first step, since he still remains in his post as mayor“, said then Samia Djemali, one of the candidates. “It’s a relief, because the inhabitants expressed themselves mostly in favor of our establishment, which further legitimizes our approach.“
For his part, Hervé Petit tells France 3 Bourgogne that he intends to leave his seat at the end of the month, after having received the verdict of the polls.
March 25: a tense first municipal council
On Friday March 25, the very first municipal council of the new team, around the mayor still in place Hervé Petit, lasts only seven minutes and degenerates. According to participants with France 3 Bourgogne, the mayor explains that his resignation “is not on the agenda” and ends up inveighing against the advisers before closing the session. Hervé Petit, for his part, replies: “I do not discuss with fourteen people, it is impossible! Through their fault, there was no prior meeting. I had prepared a plan for the municipal council because I had inquired at the prefecture, but they didn’t want to know.”
March 29: the epilogue
This Wednesday, March 30, we therefore learn that the prefecture received the resignation of Hervé Petit the day before, Tuesday, March 29. “Time to elect a new mayor and new deputies, Hervé Petit remains a municipal councilor“, indicates the new team, specifying that “elections will soon be held“.
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